According to The Huffington Post, Saldana’s interview touches not only on her Afro-Latina heritage, but on her pride in being a first-generation American. “I am proud to be Latina,” Saldana said. “I will not accept [anyone] telling me that I’m less or whatever, because to me, that is just hysterical. There’s something really beautiful about being first-generation. You’re in the middle, and you have to bring your parents and your grandparents to the other side. Yet, once you’re on the other side, you want to maintain the beauty of tradition. I feel like I was raised in a very balanced way. My mom wanted us to always be who we are, but she told us fables and stories of where we come from.”